Mud screen is formed to reduce the jacking friction in long-distance and large-diameter pipe jacking; the form and wholeness of mud screen determine the lateral friction resistance for pipe-jacking; the existing formulae of lateral friction resistance do not take account of the effect of different forms of mud screen; there are large differences between the calculation results and the actual friction resistance. The possible forms of mud screen are classified and analysed based on different construction conditions; the method for determining the forms of mud screen is presented. The influence of the injecting pressure on the thickness of mud screen is discussed; the lateral friction resistance caused by mud slurry is calculated using nonlinear fluid mechanics. Finally

a formula of lateral friction resistance for pipe jacking with different forms of mud screen is put forward using the assumption of stable mining face. The new calculation method is used in an engineering case; the calculation results are compared with the measured data; it is shown that the existing formulae are conservative and the formula of this article is more reasonable.